VIBRATION RESPONSE OF USFB COMPOSITE FLOORS

Abstract

This paper is focused on the vibration response of a composite flooring system that incorporates perforated steel Ultra Shallow Floor Beams, called USFB. This is a lightweight system that can accommodate long spans; hence it is susceptible to floor vibrations excited by dynamic loads. Both experimental and computational proposed finite element (FE) studies have been conducted to investigate various geometric parameters following a comparative study on a flooring system with bare steel perforated USFBs. Emphasis was placed on the fundamental frequency to predict the possibility of resonance of this new breed of flooring systems.